Prairie Farms acquires another building at Fort Custer Industrial Park

Prairie Farms General Manager of Michigan Tom Davis shows off the new milk product the company is offering with an extended shelf life. The product is made at Prairie Farms Battle Creek plant.(Photo: Kalea Hall/The Enquirer)

Prairie Farms Dairy Inc. has purchased a mostly vacant building at the Fort Custer Industrial Park to support a new product coming out of its Battle Creek plant.

The about 191,000-square-foot facility on North Hill Brady Road housed the WKW Roof Rail Systems before the company closed in 2016.

Since then, parts of the building have been used for storage by various companies.

"We purchased it because we ran out of room," said Tom Davis, general manager of Michigan for Prairie Farms. "We are going to put a 37,000-square-foot cooler in there to handle the new product we just started running."

The product is milk with an extended shelf life that comes in multiple flavors. This milk lasts 60 days on the shelf compared to fresh milk's 18 days.

"By June, we should be ramped up to full production, so we are going need the space," Davis said.

It will take about six months for the new cooler to be built at the former WKW facility. Until it's ready, the product is being stored in Benton Harbor.

Prairie Farms recently purchased another building at the Fort Custer Industrial Park in Battle Creek for storage of a new product line.(Photo: Kalea Hall/The Enquirer)

"Our board of directors decided it would be a good investment to pick up this building and then put a warehouse in this building here because it's close by and it's just going to be a lot easier to work out of," Davis said.

The new warehouse is right around the corner from the Prairie Farms plant on North Brady Road inside the Fort Custer Industrial Park.

"We are excited that Prairie Farms has decided to acquire this building," President and CEO of Battle Creek Unlimited Joe Sobieralski said. "We are pleased to see Prairie Farms invest in our community. We look forward to their growth plans."

Prairie Farms Dairy Inc. is one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the Midwest, with more than 800 farm families, 6,000 employees, 44 manufacturing plants, more than 100 distribution facilities and annual sales of more than $3 billion.

Last year, the company announced it planned to invest $29 million at its Battle Creek plant for the production of extended shelf life milk. The Battle Creek plant is Prairie Farm's only bottling plant that will produce the ultra-high-temperature pasteurized milk products with the longer shelf life. The product will be shipped throughout the Midwest.

The Battle Creek plant also supplies fresh milk across the state of Michigan.

The new product line brought the addition of 25 employees to the Prairie Farms Battle Creek plant where 200 work. Once they have the new warehouse ready, another 12 to 16 jobs will be added to the workforce.

"We decided to invest in Battle Creek because we have a very good facility here," Davis said.

Tom Davis, general manager in Michigan for Prairie Farms, talks about the addition to the Battle Creek Prairie Farms plant that allows the company to produce bottled milk with an extended shelf life.(Photo: Kalea Hall/The Enquirer)

Contact Kalea Hall at (269) 966-0697 or khall@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @bykaleahall.